A same-sex, binational California
couple is set for a hearing before an immigration judge in San Francisco next
week and is trying to stay together.

Doug Gentry, 53, a U.S. citizen,
and his husband, Alex Benshimol, 47, have been together for six years. They
were married in Connecticut in July 2010.

"We really don't have a
second plan," Benshimol said. "We just want to stay together."

He added, "I don't have
anything in Venezuela. ... No job, no house, nothing."

He also said he would be in danger
if he returned to his native country. "It's a very difficult situation
right now for gay people" there, Benshimol said.

"We've built our lives
here," Gentry added. The men own a business, as well as a home. Plus,
Gentry has two adult children in their 20s from a previous marriage.

Gentry lives full time in
Cathedral City, which is near Palm Springs. Benshimol has been spending more
time in San Francisco because the couple is hoping to expand their business
– Alex's Pet Grooming – into the city, where they hope to
eventually move.

Couple's history

Benshimol came to the United
States in the late 1990s from Venezuela and overstayed a tourist visa. The
couple met five years into Benshimol's 10-year visa, which expired in 2009.

Gentry filed a marriage-based
green card petition for Benshimol in July 2010, but it was denied because of
the Defense of Marriage Act, according to http://www.stopthedeportations.blogspot.com,
which describes the couple's case. They submitted the petition again in June,
citing federal developments related to same-sex binational couples, the site
says.

Because of DOMA, the United States
does not legally recognize gay and lesbian couples and their children as
families.

But there have been some
developments with DOMA. In February, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder
announced that the Department of Justice would no longer defend Section 3 of
DOMA because it considers it unconstitutional. Section 3 states that the U.S.
government will not, for federal purposes, recognize any same-sex marriage.

The DOJ had also indicated it
would continue to enforce DOMA until or unless the courts determined the law
was unconstitutional. But some attorneys in the immigration field have
questioned whether the Holder announcement might apply to immigration courts.

In May, Holder vacated a
deportation ruling against a gay man, suggesting that his relationship with a
New Jersey man might qualify him to be considered as a "spouse" under
immigration laws.

Gentry and Benshimol have been
working with immigration attorney Lavi Soloway. Another couple Soloway assisted
recently is safe after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement filed a motion
with an immigration judge to close their deportation case. Soloway had
requested that motion, which a judge in New Jersey granted.

Soloway said Tuesday, July 5 that
in the California couple's situation, they would request this week that the
government file a motion to administratively close the case, exercising
prosecutorial discretion.

He said the goal is to resolve the
case July 13, but there's a possibility "it would be ongoing for a
while."

At the hearing, scheduled for that
day, he said, they would "press on with our request for administrative
closure of the case." He noted Gentry has a pending green card application
and said, "We don't believe any deportation proceeding should go forward
until that kind of petition has been resolved."

"We're breaking new ground
with each one of these cases, so it's impossible to predict what the outcome
will be," Soloway said.

Gentry said, "We're not
asking for more than everyone else has. We're not asking for special rights.
We're asking for equal rights."